Free Republic

......................Organized science has become another special interest group lobbying for government favors. The temptation to present special-interest appeals as urgent public necessities has become not just irresistible, but commonplace. It is well-known that global warming skeptics are shut out...... ....The true believers in the threat of global warming use "education" and "communication" as euphemisms for suppressing and marginalizing dissenters. This crowd is strongly tempted by totalitarian solutions. The leading advocate of global warming fear, Dr. James Hansen, wants to put people who don't toe the line on trial for crimes against humanity. Peter Gleick, a scientist, a well-known advocate of...

Before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2011, gay and lesbian service members who were forced to leave the military because of their sexual orientation were often honorably discharged. Yet they were given only half of their discharge pay. That changed on Monday. Under a settlement to a class-action lawsuit, the Pentagon has agreed to pay full separation pay to all service members involuntarily separated from the military after Nov. 10, 2004, because of their sexual orientation. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the action against the Defense Department, the half pay was the result...

It is now clear that the re election of bama was about the greatest mistake America has seen in decades, maybe since it's inception.... We now live under the lawlessness of power hungry, ego driven men who have no idea how America works, nor care... Dingy harry hasn't done his job for three years, yet he gets paid and allowed to be lawless... bama is a boy king who acts like an arrested development addicted person who wants what he wants when he wants it.....we are being run by a child who is out of control.... Their supporters in the...

Why China’s Tu-22 bombers would represent a serious threat to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers As already happened in the past for other posts published on this blog, one the most interesting comment to The Aviationist’s recent article on China’s alleged purchase of the entire Tu-22 production line from Russia, has come from Aviationintel.com‘s Tyler Rogoway. Tyler has analyzed the controversial news for his excellent site and given his permission to share his perspective here for The Aviationist’s readers. Why China’s Tu-22 bombers would represent a serious threat to U.S. Navy aircraft carriers If, and I stress the if, this report...

We think it is fair to say that today, most people take video recording technology for granted. After all, most smartphones come equipped with video recorders that produce better-quality movies than those huge home video camcorders from just 20 years ago. Sixty years ago, filmmaking was still astonishingly primitive, and few car companies bothered to record, nevermind release, the hundreds of thousands of hours of engineering footage they took from back then. CorvetteBlogger has come across some footage that is remarkably relevant to right now. The video above is a little more than two-minutes of 1953 Corvette engineering test footage,...

Later this year, Comet ISON could put on an unforgettable display as it plunges toward the sun for a fiery encounter likely to turn the "dirty snowball" into a naked-eye object in broad daylight. At the moment, however, it doesn't look like much. John Chumack sends this picture, taken Jan. 8th, from his private observatory in Yellow Springs, Ohio:

http://youtu.be/myJ12eCrN8Y

Shocked journalists this afternoon were quick to react to the Drudge Report’s controversial header photo comparing President Obama to Hitler and Stalin. The item linked to a Weekly Standard article reporting that President Obama was willing to address the gun issue with an executive order. “Hitler and Stalin!” exclaimed BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith on Twitter alerting most of his followers by linking directly to the Drudge Report. “Drudge rules our world,” responded Slate journalist David Weigel to Smith’s post on Twitter, later adding sarcastically, “SOMETHING SHOCKING HAS BEEN POSTED ON THE INTERNET.” “Our right is nuttier than your right (US...

MONTREAL (AP) - A community in Quebec's Far North is calling for outside help to free about a dozen killer whales trapped under a vast stretch of sea ice. Locals in Inukjuak said the mammals have gathered around a single hole in the ice - slightly bigger than a pickup truck - in a desperate bid to get oxygen. "Fisheries and Oceans Canada is assessing the situation and are exploring every possible option, but will only be in a position to determine what - if anything - can be done once our specialists arrive on site," spokesman Frank Stanek said...

BROCKTON - A Plymouth Superior Court judge wasted no time rendering a decision yesterday morning against Joseph Nee, a former Marshfield High student accused of plotting a Columbine-style ambush on the school. Joseph Nee was found guilty yesterday morning of conspiracy to commit murder and acquitted of two other charges. The verdict The 21-year-old sat silently about 11:30 a.m. as Judge Charles M. Grabau found him guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and acquitted him of two other charges. It was the second time that morning the judge proclaimed Nee's guilt. Much to the surprise of Nee's lawyers, Grabau started...

There are as many starting points for the mortgage meltdown as there are fears about how far it has yet to go, but one decisive point of departure is the final years of the Clinton administration, when a kid from Queens without any real banking or real-estate experience was the only man in Washington with the power to regulate the giants of home finance, the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), better known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series...

Next up: Liberals "normalizing" child molestation.

CONNECTICUT -- Westport police arrested an 86-year-old woman accused of bringing a BB gun to a town meeting. When detectives retrieved the gun, Estelle Margolis, 86, of Westport, Conn., told officers she brought it to make a point during a discussion about gun control to show how easy it is to purchase a gun, according to police. At 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday, a Representative Town Meeting member approached a Westport police officer and reported that he and another RTM member believed a woman walked into the auditorium with what they believed was a weapon under a white cloth, police said.

CBS calls our ads "inflammatory"? That's half right. The ad is not inflammatory. But the quote is. It has inspired mass murder for centuries. But CBS didn't mean that. The CBS headline says that the ad is "inflammatory." Inflammatory? Because it violates the sharia (do not criticize Islam)? Because it might inflame devout Muslims to riot, kill and burn embassies as they did over a cartoon or youtube video? Our ads are accurate. September 11th was inflammatory. The calls for jihad in the quran are inflammatory. Ethnic cleansing in the cause of Islam is inflammatory. The jihad in Sudan is...

A 300 metre-wide asteroid is making a close pass to the Earth. Apophis - named after the Egyptian demon of destruction and darkness - has been put on a watch list by scientists. They have calculated that in 2036 there is a very small chance it could collide with our planet. However, its current fly-by is at a safe distance of about 14 million km - but this is close enough for astronomers to study the space rock and assess its future risk. Apophis will not be visible with the naked eye, but space enthusiasts can watch it online via...

One of the most hotly-anticipated elements of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s annual State of the State address today was his plan to enact “sweeping” gun control reforms in New York. In his speech, the governor outlined a seven-point gun control plan focused on “high capacity assault rifles” that he promised would be one of the “toughest” in that nation and lead similar laws to spread beyond New York. “Gun violence has been on a rampage as we know firsthand and as we know painfully,” said the governor. “We must stop the madness, my friends. In one word it’s just ‘enough.’ It...

In March of 2012, several New York City residents sued the New York Police Department over alleged overreaches of its controversial stop-and-frisk policy.* The plaintiffs argued that the NYPD “has a widespread practice of making unlawful stops on suspicion of trespass” outside certain buildings in the Bronx, and asked the court for relief from the department’s Trespass Affidavit Program (TAP). On Tuesday, they got their wish. Finding that NYPD officials showed “deliberate indifference” to the unconstitutionality of the relevant incidents, U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin issued an injunction prohibiting unjustifiable stop-and-frisk actions outside of certain Bronx buildings. This is...

SUCCINCT AND THEY NAIL IT

New York State is nearing agreement on a proposal to put what would be some of the nation’s strictest gun-control laws into effect, including what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed on Wednesday would be an ironclad ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and new measures to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill people. Lawmakers in Albany, seeking to send a message to the nation that the recent mass shootings demand swift action, say they hope to vote on the package of legislation as soon as next week. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan...

The New York Times´s Manny Fernandez greeted the opening of the biannual Texas legislative session in Austin in Wednesday´s paper: "Texas Budget Surplus Proves as Contentious As a Previous Shortfall." After explaining how Texas has become flush with cash over the last two years, going from a budget deficit to surplus, Fernandez couldn´t help working in a cut against the "far-right" Tea Party. Shortly after noon inside the Capitol’s Senate chamber, Gov. Rick Perry told senators that the comptroller’s revenue estimate released the day before was good news, but cautioned them to retain the state’s fiscally conservative model.